Lagardere completes sale of EADS shares and realises EUR1.8bn gain

Lagardere group announced (15-Apr-2013) it has fully completed the sale of EADS shares and received EUR2283 million from the sale. The company disposed 61.1 million EADS shares, representing its entire 7.4% stake of the company. EADS undertook a share buy-back of EUR500 million under the sale. The capital gain for Lagardere, net of taxes and transaction costs, is EUR1.8 billion. Lagardère group plans to divide the proceeds from the disposal between, firstly, a one-time premium for all group employees, a reduction of the Group's debt and a one-time exceptional dividend for shareholders. The level of the dividend will be decided in the coming weeks. [more - original PR]

You may also be interested in the following articles...

On 28-Nov-2016 airBaltic took delivery of the world's first Bombardier CS300 for commercial service, which will begin on 14-Dec-2016 with a flight from Riga to Amsterdam. It will receive a further 19 of the aircraft variant by 2019.

Just five years ago airBaltic was heavily loss-making and close to bankruptcy. Under CEO Martin Gauss Latvia's national airline has negotiated a successful restructuring programme, established a track record of growing profits, secured a private investor alongside the national government, made significant load factor gains, and is now returning to capacity growth.

The new CSeries order should allow airBaltic to build on these achievements by replacing its ageing Boeing 737s with one of the most modern and efficient narrowbodies aircraft in the world, while also providing additional growth capacity. Together with its Dash-8 turboprop aircraft this purchase should give it a fleet well adapted to the niche needs of a hybrid regional hub airline based in northern Europe's smaller markets.

The first commercial flight of the Bombardier CS300 on 14-Dec-2016, operated by airBaltic from Riga to Amsterdam, will be a major milestone for the Canadian manufacturer's new C Series aircraft programme. Three CS100 aircraft are already in service with SWISS, so the airBaltic flight will mean that both variants of the C Series are finally in commercial operation.

The programme is Bombardier's first wholly new aircraft development, aimed at the 100 to 150-seat market segment and offering advantages of fuel efficiency, cabin space, noise and emissions. Bombardier once targeted 2013 for entry into service, but has been dogged by problems and delays. In 2015, Bombardier seemed to have overstretched itself. The C Series received no new orders during the year and Bombardier was forced to seek investment from the Province of Québec to rescue the programme.

In 2016 the company has recovered to win a net 117 new orders, its highest annual total, bringing the programme total to 360. However, competition is cut-throat, with Airbus, Boeing and Embraer all having new developments of existing products in the same space as the C Series. Bombardier's breakthrough orders from Air Canada and Delta in 2016 required heavy price discounts.